May 29, 2011

“Right now we’re a little confused,” Guillen chuckled Saturday morning. “We’re very confused. The six-man rotation puts a lot of load on Crain. If Pena goes out there and does what he should do, I don’t mind staying in a six-man rotation. We even talk about leaving it like that, but my worry is how much Crain will work. He’s the only right-hander we have with (Sergio) Santos. I use Santos as a closer, there is a very big gap out there to cover. Hopefully Pena comes on and does a better job.”
…
“I wish Pena could be used when we’re winning to help Crain, and we’d be fine. Everybody else is pretty young. We’re still talking about it every day. Every day we change our mind. (Pitching coach) Don Cooper comes up with good ideas. To make the right decision, right now in my mind, I don’t think what I have is the right decision. We have to wait and play around with it. You see this kid (Phil) Humber throw, and (John) Danks, and it’s kind of hard. We will work it out. But right now I’m between.”

“A lot of people in Chicago thought how crazy you are you were down by one and you brought in Pena,” Guillen said. “I don’t have anybody else. I used Crain the night before and it’s not fair for him to be out there every day to take care of somebody else’s job. I’m not going to do it. I don’t care what people say.

“I’m not going to make somebody suffer with somebody else not doing what they’re supposed to do. I’m not going to do it.”

Guillen said there have been no talks about possibly trading a starter.

“No, we don’t even talk about trade, no way,” he said. “The last thing we talk about is trade. We try to figure out how we’re going to play this and how we’re going to be a better ballclub. Right now we don’t have a close decision. We’re still talking to [general manager] Kenny [Williams] and Coop. We have ideas. The only thing is if Pena throws the ball better, then we’re set. We’re fine.”

When this rotation is healthy, few teams west of Philly can boast a stronger group from top to bottom. Buehrle might average 86 MPH with his fastball, but he’s essentially a lock for 200+ innings and 3+ WAR. Danks, Floyd and Jackson have shown continued improvement over the past couple years; each posted 3.8 WAR or higher last season and they all have the potential to exceed that mark again in 2011. The No. 5 spot in the rotation is murky, but the upside is massive between Peavy and Sale. And even if Peavy doesn’t return until June and Sale is the club’s closer, this is still an obvious strength given how good the front four guys are. When you look at this group of guys and where some of them started, it’s hard not credit Don Cooper for everything he’s done in Chicago. People love what Dave Duncan does for the Cardinals in St. Louis, but there’s no doubt that the AL has a similar equivalent in Mr. Cooper.

The reason Chris Sale prepared himself as a starter this offseason was not necessarily because he is expected to be inserted into the 2011 starting rotation. General manager Ken Williams simply didn’t want Sale to break from the usual routine he employed over the past few years at this formative stage of his career.

“If you now try to have him do something he’s not used to doing, you might not get the guy you just saw the last half of the season,” Williams said. “I think it’s important for him to always prepare — for all guys, not just him — as they always have to get the most out of him.

“As we are currently set up, it’s my feeling he ultimately will be in the bullpen. We won’t have that need, at least no longer than 30 days, if we have it at all. But to have him prepare as a reliever and take away one or two of his pitches because that’s what guys tend to do, I don’t think it’s wise.”

Williams also doesn’t believe Sale would be hampered by moving back and forth between starter and reliever in the same season.

“When you can do it, you can do it,” Williams said. “He’s shown he can do it. Leave him alone.”

Under terms of the agreements, Danks will receive $6 million in 2011, Quentin $5.05 million and Pena $1.6 million.

Danks, 25, went 15-11 with a 3.72 ERA (88 ER/213.0 IP) and 162 strikeouts in 32 starts with the White Sox in 2010, recording his second straight season with at least 10 wins, 30 starts and 200.0 IP. He established career highs in victories, strikeouts and IP and limited opponents to a career-low .237 (189-799) average. Since 2008, Danks ranks third among American League left-handers in IP (608.1) and strikeouts (470) and fifth in victories (40).

Quentin, 28, hit .243 (110-453) with 25 doubles, 26 home runs and 87 RBI in a career-high 131 games with the White Sox last season. He finished fifth in AL Most Valuable Player voting in 2008, batting .288 (138-480) with 36 home runs and 100 RBI in his first season with the Sox.

Pena, 29, was 5-3 with a 5.10 ERA (57 ER/100.2 IP) in 52 games (three starts) with the White Sox in 2010. He established a career high with 100.2 IP and led all AL relievers with 81.2 IP.

… Cooper is optimistic that Jake Peavy will be able to return by Opening Day, although some conservative estimates have his 2011 debut pushed back as far as mid-May. And what if Peavy isn’t ready when the season starts?

“We will be able to get somebody that will do what we need them to do until Peavy is ready,” Cooper said. “I remember the days when we had to find a No. 3, 4 and 5 starter. We will be able to get somebody.”

Since Cooper doesn’t make final player personnel decisions, he is looking at in-house candidates to bridge the gap until Peavy’s return. He named Charlie Leesman, Lucas Harrell and Tony Pena as starting candidates. …

Cooper doesn’t like the idea of shifting Chris Sale from the rotation to the bullpen during the season.

Williams forecasted the news that J.J. Putz apparently signed with Arizona to become the Diamondbacks’ closer, saying, “We wanted him back, but [Putz is] headed elsewhere.”

As for the recently non-tendered Bobby Jenks, Williams remained open to a return by his five-year closer, with logical hesitation: “He’s new to the market, and he’s got to flesh some things out before he gets back to us.”

“[A trade is] quite possibly the way we might have to go because we’ve taken ourselves to—or beyond—our payroll limits,” he said. “I might have to get a little creative with trades…[but] I don’t think a reliever is going to come at these meetings for us. That will be after.”

As far as Jenks, Williams wouldn’t close the door on him completely, but not at the price Jenks would have received in arbitration.

“Bobby Jenks brought a World Series to Chicago and I will never forget that,” Williams said. “And I haven’t closed the door on that. All it says today is with the dollars it will bring in an arbitration hearing we cannot go there. The message I have to Sox fans and to Bobby Jenks is he gave us everything he had. I’m proud of his growth as a person, a player and as a dad. I wish the best for him if indeed he does end up somewhere else.”

As the coals in the hot stove are just beginning to get stoked up, it’s time to rank the current Chicago White Sox, in order of importance for 2011 and beyond. It’s not intended to be a strict list of merely the best players, or best values, on the White Sox. Rather, it takes into account team depth, the free agent market, or answering the question of which player would hurt the most not being on the team? …

… 30. Eduardo Escobar, SS

One great AFL season does not make a prospect. But given that Escobar has lit up a fall season that earns more than its fair share of attention from major-league eyes, Escobar becomes an important trade chip this winter. Perhaps the inclusion of the shortstop in a Carlos Quentin-Colby Rasmus deal with St. Louis gets that trade done.

September 29, 2010

It hasn’t been a great season for Quentin, who’s only partially bounced back from his thoroughly disappointing 2009 performance. His .236/.333/.477 line isn’t bad, particularly when you see a .233 BABIP, but he’s managed to offset nearly all of that value with defensive numbers that border on Dunn-like. He’s put up a -32.1 UZR in his past 219 games, and one has to wonder now if the team is better off using him at designated hitter. I still think that he’s worth tendering; the offensive upside is easy to see, and he’s been an above-average hitter even during these disappointing years. But it looked like the White Sox had themselves a star when he batted .288/.394/.571 in 2008, and that’s looking an awful lot like his career-year right now.

Heard this from multiple executives: The White Sox have made it clear they are open for business, and ready to trade off parts … from what has been a very disappointing team. The perception of other teams is that Paul Konerko is available right now, and … as we know, Chicago GM Ken Williams is a deal-maker,someone who will move quickly — as he did with the Contreras and Thome deals last fall.